Thematic Issues/ Features:

Each year one issue of Critical Asian Studies is devoted to an in-depth exploration of one topic. Recent thematic issues have been entitled "Afghanistan: 9/11, War without Respite, and the New Face of Empire" (2003) and "Cambodia: Conflict and Change" (2002). Topics covered in earlier thematic issues include labor and labor migration in Asia, the crisis in East Timor, the nuclear weapons standoff in South Asia, and textbook censorship and war.

The June 2004 issue of Critical Asian Studies, entitled "Crafting Genders: Asian Women Making Decisions" will explore how specific, local, gender ideologies inform and constrain women's decision-making, and, in turn, how women's individual and collective decisions challenge or reinforce existing gender ideologies. Guest edited by Hillary Crane (Tufts) and Kathy Nadeau (California State University), the 160-page issue will contain articles by:

• Ligaya Lindio-McGovern: Labor Export and Alienation in the Context of Globalization: The Experience of Filipino Migrant Domestic Workers
• Shanshan Du: Choosing between Life and Love: Suicidal Responses to the Gender Ideal of Husband-Wife Dyad among the Lahu Na of Southwest China
• Audrey E. Mouser: Piety or Pleasure? Behavioral Responses to Conservatism in Malay Women in Penisular Malaysia
• Pilapa Esara: Post-modernity and the Philippine Family: Pre-Colonial Longings

Topical suggestions for future issues are welcome. Write to the Managing Editor, 3693 South Bay Bluffs Drive, Cedar, MI 49621-9434, USA. Or email the managing editor Tom Fenton at tfenton@igc.org to propose topics for consideration.